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Sussex County paramedics win gold medal at 2018 JEMS Games

A five-member Sussex County Emergency Medical Services team recently won a gold medal for their performance in the 20-18 Journal of Emergency Medical Services, or JEMS Games in Charlotte, North Carolina.

American Olympic athletes weren’t the only ones who brought home medals this winter season.

 

Bonnie O’Bier has been a Sussex County paramedic for the past 11 years.

Just a few weeks ago, she, and four fellow paramedics earned a gold medal for their  performance in the 2018 Journal of Emergency Medical Services, or JEMS Games in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“The JEMS Games are held every year. This year, there were 27 teams from all over the United States, as well as a couple from Europe that competed. And basically it (the game) measures medical skills by providers of para-medicine and they put you through several different categories.”

The Sussex County Emergency Medical Services team made the finals where the scenario was responding to an overdose and a secondary overdose in a nightclub; then while the medics were treating the overdose patients, a gunman entered the nightclub and began shooting.

 

“So the final scenario for us was a simulated nightclub shooting. It initially started out with a heroin overdose; that was the initial 9-1-1 call. As the team entered we treated the overdose and a secondary overdose.”

It’s the response to that scenario that won the Delaware team a gold medal.

It was the first for Sussex County paramedics since 2013 and their seventh since 2005.

 

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.